Incarnation and Myth: The Debate Continued (1979 Goulder), edited volume

Incarnation and Myth: The Debate Continued (1979) is a volume edited by Michael Goulder.

Abstract

In light of the immense popularity and unparalleled controversy that the 1977 publication of "The Myth of God Incarnate" ignited in Britain (including a series of hostile reviews, the nearly immediate publications of "The Truth of God Incarnate" and "God Incarnate," and the call of the Church of England Evangelical Council for five Anglican authors to resign their orders), this follow-up colloquy and publication provided a suitable forum for all of the original contributing authors and those from a more traditional perspective to dialogue together regarding the topic of the Incarnation in a more formal and charitable manner. As might be expected in an edited volume, some of the contributing authors address more theological questions and others address more historical questions. Since the contributions of Charles Moule, Michael Goulder, Graham Stanton, Don Culpitt, and France Young address the latter, especially in relation to the presence or absence of this incarnational themes within the corpus of the New Testament, I will focus more attention on these authors below.

First, Michael Goulder, the editor of the volume, couples together the contributions of Charles Moule with his own response since both essays address the question of whether the titles of Jesus found in the New Testament, such as Kurios and Son of God, the corporate personality concept, and various other aspect of the New Testament imply that Jesus was divine. While Moule argues here, as well as in his larger work, "The Origin of Christology," that this high form of Christology was present in the earliest datable documents from the New Testament, including writings that predate even the apostle Paul, Goulder disagrees. For Goulder, it is only in later developments that this trends begin to appear.

Second, in a similar manner, Goulder arranges the essays of Graham Stanton and Don Culpitt, because both contributors raise questions about how dependent early Christians were to their larger cultural context with respect to the language they used to describe Jesus, and his incarnation. In particular, Graham Stanton employs Galatians 4.4 and other NT texts that describe Jesus being 'sent by God' to argue that this language was incipently incarnational and suggests that Paul conceived of Jesus as divine. In response, Culpitt strives to delimit a strong distinction between 1) Jesus as being a pre-existent heavenly being close to God, whom God has sent into the world; and 2) Jesus as God incarnate. Moreover, Culpitt argues that the NT, and Stanton's cases support 1), but that 2) can not be logically sustained.

Finally, France Young's chapter entitled, "The Finality of Christ," suggests that the New Testament is much more concerned with eschatology than incarnation and that the surprising aspect of this thrust, in light of other Jewish eschatological literature dating from a similar time period, is that the entire New Testament corpus places this eschatological focus on Christ. Sharply put, eschatology, not incarnation, is what makes Christ singular, unique, and able to act as God's emissary for human salvation. In this chapter by Young, as well as the work of Goulder described above, we see precursors to the controversial, yet highly persuasive argumentation of James Dunn, in his "Christology in the Making", regarding the prevalence of Adam Christology within Pauline thought, whereby Paul construes the efficacy of Jesus' salving acts vis-à-vis Jesus being the second Adam rather than the God incarnate. Moreover, in relation to broader question of whether incarnational thought is present within the New Testament itself, Young questions if even the "Gospel of John has advanced a great deal beyond the rest of the New Testament towards a fully conceived doctrine of incarnation" (182). Instead she suggests that it was only the Logos, who was an instrument or agent of God, that was understood to be incarnate in John's Gospel. Accordingly, she intimates, though never explicitly states, that it is only with the early church fathers that Jesus, as God, was understood to be incarnate. ~Deborah Forger

Editions and translations

Published in Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1979.

Contents

A survey of the issues in the myth debate / Maurice Wiles -- The myth and Christian faith / Brian Hebblethwaite -- Interpretation and imagination / Nicholas Lash -- The incarnation and modern theology / Brian Hebblethwaite -- Jesus and the meaning of 'God' / Don Cupitt -- Jesus and the meaning of 'God' : a comment / Nicholas Lash -- Mr. Hebblethwaite on the incarnation / Don Cupitt -- Is there a doctrine of the incarnation? / John Hick -- Paradox and mystification / Michael Goulder -- The logical coherence of the doctrine of the incarnation / Brian Hebblethwaite -- Can there be any evidence? / Frances Young -- What sort of evidence? / Nicholas Lash -- Myth and truth in scientific enquiry / John Rodwell -- Evil and incarnation / John Hick -- A comment on Professor Hick's critique of atonement doctrine / Charles Moule -- The moral and religious value of the incarnation / Brian Hebblethwaite -- God suffered and died / Frances Young -- A wider framework / Leslie Houlden -- The incarnation as the foundation of the church / Stephen Sykes -- Three points of conflict in the Christological debate / Charles Moule -- Incarnation or eschatology? / Michael Goulder -- A comment / Charles Moule -- Incarnational Christology in the New Testament / Graham Stanton -- Professor Stanton on incarnational language in the New Testament / Don Cupitt -- Mr. Cupitt on incarnational Christology in the New Testament / Graham Stanton -- The finality of Christ / Frances Young -- The uniqueness of the incarnation / Brian Hebblethwaite -- A response to Hebblethwaite / John Hick -- The centrality of Jesus for history / Lesslie Newbigin -- Comment on Lesslie Newbigin's essay / Maurice Wiles -- Relativism in science and theology / John Rodwell -- Christology and the future of truth / Nicholas Lash -- A summing-up of the colloquy : myth of God debate / Basil Mitchell -- Samaritan incarnational Christology? / Graham Stanton -- The Samaritan hypothesis / Michael Goulder

External links

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